The ball skips by St. Peter's Dustin Soliven (2) and Farrell Nick Pucciarelli. The players were wearing pink shirts and leggings during their annual game for breast cancer awareness.Staten Island Advance/Hilton Flores

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The Monsignor Farrell High School soccer team gave its coach Eddie Hynes a nice 48th birthday gift Oct. 20 when it defeated visiting St. Peter’s 5-0.

That, however, was just a secondary story to the fact that the two teams were playing their fourth annual “Sock It To Breast Cancer” contest.

The TV coverage and the larger-than-normal crowd helped bring attention to the breast cancer awareness cause, which both teams have raised money for in recent weeks through things such as the sale of wristbands. The event began in 2009 and was spearheaded by Sister Grazyna Michniewicz, a Farrell teacher and breast-cancer survivor, who was also the neighbor of then-SP coach John Liantonio. The Eagles’ players sported pink shirts and the Lions were clad in pink leggings, the color symbolic of the breast cancer awareness cause.

“The boys couldn’t have been more excited than to buy pink soccer apparel,” said a smiling Hynes. “Everyone has mothers and sisters, so everyone’s affected by this.”

“My mom’s sister is dying from what started out as breast cancer,” said Christina Monzi-Sanger. “It’s affecting me personally now, and could be something that affects me later on. It’s just nice that the boys take pride in this. It’s a fun night, I enjoyed it. It would’ve been nicer if we won, though.”

The “Sock It To Breast Cancer” doubleheader began with a junior varsity contest that Farrell rallied to win 2-1.